Welcome to the Event Calendar, where you will find tour dates and special events. The calendar on the main Hittin' The Web page shows all the events from all HTW sites. The calendar on each individual band's site show just the events for that band.

I hadn’t seen the Allman Brothers since Farm AID, which was 11 months ago; turns out this was the longest I’d gone without seeing them since, I think, 1995. So it was great to be home again Wednesday night, facing the full-on Peach Express. It was a nice night at the beach; cool and breezy, a night where you make sure to bring the sweat shirt from the car into the show. It was also pretty much the only night all week it didn’t rain.

Ratdog came on to an almost-empty house, although the deadheads in the parking lot quickly packed up the hibachis and scurried in. Weir led the band through a well-paced set that hit some nice if monochromatic grooves. But to my ears, Ratdog lacks the killer soloist their music would seem to require; this becomes evident when Warren Haynes joins the band about two thirds in for “New Speedway Boogie.” It has a nice “Schoolgirl” vibe; Warren tarts up the bluesy, parabolic licks. Warren and Mark Karan trade licks, but really, it is Warren dripping the butter on this cob. It is as if his every lick energizes Ratdog, you can see him, hear him lifting the band to a higher place. On the outro, the band builds a little space, Warren, Karan and sax player Kenny Brooks cascading rainy lines, into an a capella vocal coda (“one way or another…”) Then the band throws a switch right into “Mississippi Half Step;” I have never heard Warren play this song, but I know immediately he “gets it.” As he bends off short lines it is as if he is squeezing multi-colored mustard into the ‘dog. Warren is Clapton-esque on the “…across the Rio Grande-o” transition, playing high, swooping regal melody lines. Weir sings the vocals, then Warren hits the note, grinds it, pulls the band into the stratosphere. The music shimmers, then gets tiny; Warren plays some gentle bird calls over the top…. and done.

Warren and Weir both leave, the band moves into what I’d call a “disco duck” jam, with weird keyboard noises like an 80s video game. Weir returns and leads the band through a pretty “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” then into “Slipknot” and “Franklin’s Tower,” the inevitable closing of the parentheses after the “Help On the Way” opener.

If you’re scoring at home, here’s the Allman Brothers’ set:

You Don’t Love Me >
Walk on Gilded Splinters
Les Brers in A Minor
The Sky is Crying
Leave My Blues at Home
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl (Karan)
No One Left to Run With
Melissa
The Same Thing > bass >
Drums (Roy Haynes) > Afro Blue (Haynes, CHimenti, Brooks)
Jessica
encore: One Way Out

So it’s nice to see the fellas. “You Don’t Love Me” is short and to the point, a nice opener; Greg’s vocals are crisp and present and he seems happy to be back in the saddle. Warren solos, then Derek; Oteil and Derek turn and face Warren during the closing crouch. There’s a drum shuffle, Warren hits an exclamation point of a closing note, and then bam, the percolating drum shimmy that heralds “Walk on Gilded Splinters.” Warren scats the intro, Derek’s slide grinds out the riff, Warren looks over at Gregg who smiles, lays down some organ, then singes the verse… Warren plays over the drummers, then Derek and Warren trade lines over the drums and Oteil’s bass.

Next the band creates a big, misty overture that will be “Les Brers.” Derek chops down to cue the accents. The band states the theme, then Gregg does a signature B3 vamp, followed by some Derek impressionism. A drum break… an Oteil tone poem… Warren wades out into the purple pool, then gets on his pony and rides. Warren shreds, Derek chords; then the two melt together and move as one back into the lick. The chorded descent that closes the song rings, chimes like a bell.

There is a pregnant pause, filled by the crowd expending some energy; then into a slow blues from the five. “The Sky is Crying.” Derek takes the first solo, long, bent slide lines that sound squeezed out of a big glass tube. Then Derek tort

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